How to Optimize Your Website Structure and Design

A few quick tips and techniques to proper website Structure

Anyone can have a website. But it’s more than just having a site. It’s very important to make sure your site is easily accessible and visually interesting to visitors. If a website is jumbled and difficult to navigate it can easily deter future customers from doing business with you. If people can’t find the information or products they’re looking for with you, they’re likely to go elsewhere instead of contacting you directly.

For these reasons it is important to optimize the structure and design of your website. The most important part of optimization is making sure your site has clarity. You want to make sure that when a potential customer comes to your website they know exactly what you’re about. If you’re a wedding photographer it should be understood from the moment someone visits your site. There should be no question of what kinds of photographs you take, it should be right there from the start with clear information and samples of your work. Don’t make the visitor have to hunt to figure it out.

Be sure to keep the focus on you and what you have to offer your customers. Frequently you’ll come to a website that is too busy, using every bit of extra space on the page for additional information or advertising. This makes a website become cluttered and will often stray the eyes of the visitor from the most important information at hand, which should be what is at the center of the page. Keep the page simple and clean, allowing the visitor to view exactly what you want them to see on each and every page of your site.

Visualization is an important factor. It is easy to post photos on your website that show who you are and the products you have to offer. But overuse of photos is an easy mistake to make. Sure people love to see what you have, but it shouldn’t be so prominent that it takes away from the information you’re offering. Be sure to use photos that are suitable for the content of each page.

Don’t put every single detail of information about your business within one single page. Websites have been designed in a way that allows us to have separate pages for each important set of information we want to note. Let visitors navigate toward what they want to know. For example, if you’re a Copy Editor it would be important to have separate pages for things like: education and experience, types of projects you work with, project pricing, work samples, and contact information. Others could be added of course depending on what you feel is important to share, but none of it should all be smashed together within one page.

And last but not least, always be sure to leave a way for your visitors to take the next step. If they like what your company has to offer, don’t just leave them without a way to get in touch. Sure, a phone number is great, but the phone is not the most common mode of contact today. Allow visitors to immediately send you a question or comment or even connect to your through a Facebook page. There should always be an extra step to take in the end that will allow them to come more one on one with your business.

How Does Your Site Compare to Others?

In the end, take a look at your website and ask yourself if you’d be comfortable browsing it as a customer. Take the time to browse the websites of similar businesses and see what you might find visually working for them. And, consider asking your customers what they think. Take a moment to send out an email or post a question on social media asking your current customers what you could do to make their visits easier. After all, the reason you designed the website to begin with was to assist your customers, both current and future.